Monday, 13 October 2008

The Troop's SPL was not present at the meeting and the ASPL of the Troop had to take care of the meeting for the night. The SPL was not their because of the fact that he was sick. The ASPL in my opinion definitely has more self confidence than the SPL. the ASPL did a average job for this meeting. I would not say that they did a great meeting but the meeting ran smoothly and efficiently. He started off with announcements. The only problem with the opening and announcements was that we start the meeting almost 10 minutes late because the ASPL did not look at the clock and does not have a watch or cellphone to keep track of time. Once he was instructed in getting the scouts ready for opening he did not have very many problems minus the normal troublemaker's in the Troop. After that he was loud and fairly clear with announcements. After this we had a discussion on themes for a camporee since our Troop is hosting the Fall Camporee in November. Next came the primary activity which was a advancement night. Advancement Night for the Troop is a time to work on and sign off requirements for rank advancements and get a general feel for how everyone in the Troop is doing. This is relatively easy right now since the Troop is fairly small. The Troop was able to get a lot of work done and for the most part stayed on task for the entire night which made me very happy. Finally came the closing for the meeting. For some reason this is the part of the meeting that just fell to pieces because of the fact that the ASPL was not able to get the Troop formed in a circle for the closing ceremony. The scouts just would not listen. This caused problems for the ASPL because he is good when the scouts are good but struggles when their is behavior problems. I kept reminding him to get formed up and made the comment we are not leaving until this gets done but other than those two comments I let the situation work out itself. Eventually everyone got the picture and formed into the circle for closing. I will have to discuss how to give directions to young hyperactive scouts with the ASPL next time I see him. My favorite solution is to remind the scouts gently and just raise the scout sign until you have their attention. Scouts will figure out that the more time that they have to wait for instructions or information to be given out the less time they will have for the fun activities of the meeting.